Opinions Matter

c/fence-erectors

15

jones.anna•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: 500 fence posts installed is where most guys burn out

I hit 500 installed posts on a commercial job outside Eugene last month and it hit me different. That's 500 holes dug, 500 bags of concrete mixed, and 500 level checks. Most guys I know quit before 300 because their knees or back give out. Has anyone else noticed a specific number where the job stops being fun and starts feeling like punishment?

19

rose_cooper•1mo ago

Tried mixing lime into my concrete for a post setting job...

I used a 10% lime mix for a gate post near the coast in Galveston and the concrete actually cracked in 3 weeks... must be something about the salt air. Anyone else have trouble with lime in coastal areas?

24

riverreed•1mo ago

My foreman swore by using pressure treated posts for every fence, but after 8 months I found them rotting at ground level on a damp clay site near Portland

He kept saying 'cedar's a waste of money' but I dug up two posts last week and the bottoms were soft and full of mold, so has anyone else seen pressure treated fail in wet soil or was it just a bad batch?

8

rose_hart•1mo ago

Used to pour concrete footings by hand for every post...

I used to mix concrete by hand for every post hole back when I started fencing in 2018. It was backbreaking work, took forever, and I'd end up with inconsistent results every time. Finally bought a small towable mixer 2 years ago, and it cut my footing time by half on average jobs. I still hand mix for small repairs under 10 posts because the mixer is a pain to clean for tiny batches. What do you guys use for post concrete? Still doing it by hand or have you made the switch too?

10

blake_bell29•1mo ago

Dropped $450 on a Stihl post hole auger and it paid for itself in 3 days

Been digging post holes with a manual clamshell digger for 8 years. Shoulder's been killing me. Finally bit the bullet and got the Stihl BT 131 with the 8 inch bit. First job was 32 holes for a horse fence out near Bend. Ground was rocky clay too. Finished in 5 hours what would have taken me 2 days. Now I'm wondering why I waited so long. Anybody else make the switch and have their body thank them?

4

william_carter•1mo ago

Just found out a 6-foot privacy fence catches wind like a sail...

I was reading a county permit document online yesterday and it said a solid fence that size can handle up to 12 pounds of wind force per square foot, which adds up quick. Has anyone here had a fence blow over because they didn't account for that?

26

jenny_coleman•1mo ago

PSA: Don't buy those cheap plastic post savers from Amazon

I put in 20 of those plastic post savers (you know, the ones that go around the base of wood posts) back in March of last year. Spent about $60 on them total, thought I was being smart protecting my work. Fast forward to last week when I go back to check on that job and every single one had cracked and split apart. The sun just ate them up, they got brittle in like 8 months. Now I gotta go back and replace them all on my own dime, plus dig out the old broken pieces from around the posts. Total loss was around $200 in materials and my time. Has anyone else had bad luck with these things or did I just get a garbage batch?

28

casey16•1mo ago

Saw this killer cedar fence in Nashville last weekend that used zero nails

Whole thing was held together with these wooden pegs and some kind of epoxy, looked like it had been standing for 20 years. Has anyone tried that pin method on a privacy fence or is it just for the high end stuff?

2

kim963•2mo ago

Can we talk about setting posts in wet ground?

Last spring I put up a 200-foot fence near a creek in Oregon and the ground was still soggy from the rain. The concrete took three days to set right and I had to brace every post so they wouldn't lean. Anyone else have tricks for working with wet soil on a tight timeline?

17

angelar57•2mo ago

PSA: Watch out for rotten fence posts near old oak trees

I was out on a job last week in rural Georgia replacing a section of split rail fence. The homeowner wanted me to pull up some old posts near a big oak tree, and I found the bottoms were completely rotted out from moisture trapped against the roots. Took me twice as long to dig them out because the roots had grown around the concrete. Has anyone else run into trouble setting posts near big trees?

14

the_jana•2mo ago

Switched from hand digging post holes to a skid steer auger last spring

I used to spend all day digging post holes by hand for a 400 foot fence in Austin, getting blisters and slowing way down. Then I rented a skid steer with a 12-inch auger for $300 and knocked out all the holes in under 3 hours. Has anyone else found the rental cost is totally worth it compared to the headache of manual digging?

5

nina_jenkins•2mo ago

Spent $250 on a hydraulic post driver attachment and it either saved my back or wasted my money depending on who you ask

I got that Skid Steer auger attachment and it ripped through frozen ground in 10 seconds flat, but my buddy says hand-digging gives you better control on rocky soil and now I'm wondering which of us is right - anyone else go back and forth on power tools vs. manual labor on tough jobs?

19

walker.max•2mo ago

Old timer at the supplier told me to dig post holes 6 inches deeper than frost line

I took his advice on a job in Buffalo last winter and set 8 foot posts for a 6 foot privacy fence. That extra depth cost me a full day of auger work and I was cursing him the whole time. Now that the ground has thawed and settled, every single post is perfectly straight and level - do you guys always go deeper than the frost line or do you cut it close?

3

lopez.karen•2mo ago

Old timer told me to set posts in crush rock not concrete - saved my back on a rocky hillside near Durango last summer

A veteran installer with 30 years in the trade told me to stop using concrete for rocky terrain and just tamp in crushed stone instead. I was skeptical because every fence guide says concrete is the only way, but on a job near Durango where the soil was pure shale, I gave it a shot. The posts went in half the time and stayed dead solid through a rainy season while my neighbor's concrete-sets heaved and shifted. Has anyone else made the switch from concrete to crushed stone for post setting in tough ground?

19

the_andrew•2mo ago

Drove past a farm in Ohio last week that had a barbed wire fence so poorly strung it was sagging to the ground in three places

I was heading to a job near Dayton and saw this place off Route 35. The posts were leaning every which way and the wire was just draped like clothesline. A few cows were walking right through it like it wasn't even there. I had to pull over and take a picture because it was that bad. How do you let a fence get that neglected? Must have been 20 years old with no maintenance. Has anyone else run into farms like that where the owner just gives up on fence care?

21

matthewkim•2mo ago

Hit 200 fence posts in one day last week and my body felt it the next morning

I was on a job out in Clackamas where the homeowner wanted a split rail fence across about 300 feet of hilly land. I figured I could bang out 200 posts in a day if I really pushed. Started at 6am with the auger and by noon I was already feeling it in my lower back. By 3pm I was down to 50 posts left and my arms were just done. Finished at 7pm and barely made it to my truck. Woke up the next day and could barely get out of bed. I usually do around 100-120 posts in a day so this was way over my normal limit. Has anyone else pushed past their usual number and paid for it the next day?

11

simons28•2mo ago

Rant: Spent $400 on a self-leveling post hole digger attachment - best and worst money I ever spent

I paid $400 for a hydraulic auger attachment that levels itself on slopes. On my last job in hilly Vermont, it saved me about 3 hours of leveling post holes by hand. But on flat ground, the thing just spins and digs crooked because it tries to auto-correct. So now I only use it on hills and stick to my cheap manual digger on flat sites. Has anyone else tried one of these and found it works better on certain soil types or grades?

20

eric_murray26•2mo ago

Had an old contractor show me a trick I still use today

I was working on a fence job out near Springfield last summer, this older guy Joe was running the crew next to mine. He saw me struggling with a post that kept shifting in the concrete before it set. He walked over and said 'you gotta brace it with a 2x4 angled into the ground, not just eyeball it.' I thought I knew better but gave it a shot. Next three posts came out dead straight without me having to touch them again. We ended up chatting for 20 minutes about different soil types and how they mess with settling. He told me he learned that trick from his dad in the 80s doing farm fencing. Anyone else run into random pros on site who just drop knowledge like that?

20

margaret_taylor42•2mo ago

Why nobody talks about checking post hole depth after rain

I was setting posts on a job in Portland last spring and kept hitting the same depth marker I always use. After three holes the ground felt totally different, so I dug down an extra 4 inches and hit wet clay that could wreck a fence base in a year. My foreman saw me checking and said 'you never dig after a dry week without probing deeper.' Has anyone else run into hidden soil changes that messed up their fence line?

7

the_andrew•2mo ago

Waste of money on cedar pickets that weren't treated right

Last spring I bought a whole pallet of cedar pickets from a supplier near Austin for $580. Thought I was getting a deal since the price was lower than the lumber yard. After installing them in June, by October half of them had warped and split bad. Called the supplier and he said they were 'air dried' but clearly they had too much moisture left in them. I lost almost $300 worth of material because I had to replace those pickets. Now I only buy from places that let me check moisture content with a meter before I pay. Anyone else get burned on pickets that looked good but dried out too fast?

27

nathana48•2mo ago

Three hours into a backyard fence job in Austin last Thursday and my auger died on the third post hole

It was a rental too, a Toro that I paid $85 for the day. Had to hand dig the last six holes in that rocky Texas clay. Has anyone else had bad luck with Toro augers holding up?

21

sarah531•2mo ago

Warning: Post driver broke after 3 months of rocky soil

I put in a new fence line near Austin back in June, and the rocky ground was tearing me up. I got a cheap post driver from a big box store and it held up fine for about 2 months. Then around week 12, I noticed the rubber head started cracking and the metal ring got loose. Last Tuesday, I was driving a T-post and the whole thing split in half, sending pieces flying. Lucky nobody got hit, but I had to rent a driver for the rest of the job. Before and after, it went from a solid tool to a hazard in under 90 days. Has anyone else had a post driver fail on them after working hard ground?

-1

dakota_nelson43•2mo ago

Had a gate hinge shear clean off on a windy job in Cheyenne

The wind caught a 6-foot cedar gate I just hung and snapped the top hinge bolt. I had to drill out the old bolt and replace it with a heavier 3/8-inch galvanized carriage bolt on the spot. Anyone have a go-to heavy-duty hinge for high-wind areas?

3

the_zara•2mo ago

A homeowner in Austin pointed out my post caps were crooked, saying 'they look like a drunk guy put them on', so I switched from a 4-foot level to a 2-footer for tighter checks.

What's your go-to method for keeping those finicky caps perfectly straight?

10

jesse_fisher•2mo ago

My old boss in Spokane said to never use a string line for a long run, just eyeball it.

I followed that for years until a 200-foot cedar fence job where my posts were off by almost three inches by the end. I had to pull and reset six posts, which cost me a full day. Has anyone else had a piece of bad advice that really set you back on a job?